What is newsprint made from? Paper manufacturing technology, how it is made from waste paper. Paper making technology

Making paper at home

1. Introduction

Do-it-yourself paper... Can it be made at home? This is the question asked by the authors of the proposed project. Having studied the literature on this issue, we came to the conclusion that the impossible does not happen in this case. We found two ways to make paper at home, having tried both, we changed them slightly and offer our own.

Thus, goal of this project: Learn to make paper yourself.

Project objectives become:
Saving forest resources (no matter how loud it sounds);
Learn to use recycled materials;
Development of creative abilities of project participants (and their parents).
Nowadays, handmade products are highly valued, because they retain the warmth of human hands and have no analogues. The same can be said about handmade paper: interest in it is growing every day, so, according to forecasts, paper craftsmen will not be bored.

2. Main part

2.1 Recycled paper.

“Handmade” paper is not like machine-made paper, and from the point of view of technical standards it is worse: uneven in thickness, usually less smooth, sometimes too fragile - such paper is not always suitable for printing. But handmade paper has one undeniable advantage that makes you forget all its shortcomings - absolute exclusivity. Paper craftsmen have long noticed one pattern: even if the same materials are used when casting two sheets and the manufacturing technology remains unchanged, they will still be at least slightly different from each other. The effect of surprise is what paper craftsmen value most; maybe it is he who transforms papermaking from a craft into an art.

Manual papermaking was mastered in China: almost 2000 years ago (in 153 AD), a certain Tsai-Lun, the Minister of Agriculture, recommended that his fellow citizens use “shi” paper for writing, made from wood fibers of a plant that later became known as paper paper. trees. The process of obtaining paper from this wood was as follows. The bark was pounded in water to separate the fibers, and the resulting mixture was poured onto trays with long, narrow strips of bamboo at the bottom. When the water drained, the soft sheets were laid to dry on bamboo plates and old rags. Apparently, due to the fact that rags were used for drying, Chinese paper had one peculiarity - it was so loose that the paint on it spread quite a lot. However, later this quality of Chinese paper was highly appreciated by Japanese calligraphers, who used Chinese paper for their work.

A Korean monk brought the secret of paper production to Japan in 610. Over several centuries, the Japanese modified Chinese technology and created their own methods of paper production. The Chinese poured fibers soaked in water onto special mesh molds and allowed the water to slowly drain and seep through the small cells. The Japanese, on the contrary, vigorously shook the mold so that the fibers were thoroughly intertwined. In addition, they began to add a sticky plant extract, which contributed to a more dense and durable connection of the fibers. The ancient Japanese valued paper not only for its practical qualities, but also for its beauty. It was famous for its thinness, almost transparency, which did not at all deprive it of its strength. Traditional Japanese handmade paper is called washi. Over time, it gained popularity, especially in the imperial court during the Hai'en period (794–1185). In those days, the best grades of Japanese paper were worth their weight in gold. Such paper is one of the most popular gifts in modern Japan. However, calligraphy masters still preferred Chinese paper, on which the ink was slightly blurred, which made it possible to achieve greater expressiveness in writing. The Japanese tried for a long time to imitate this quality, but the raw materials used (mostly mulberry bast were used) and Japanese technology did not give such an effect.

Interestingly, the tradition of producing paper from recycled (already used) raw materials originates in Japan. In the 8th century, after the death of the emperor from the Haien dynasty, Seiwa, one of the court ladies made new sheets of paper from the emperor’s letters and wrote a Buddhist sutra on them, as if touching his soul. It turns out that waste paper began to be used for paper production not at all for practical reasons, as one might think, but for religious reasons. The restored paper was called “usuzumigami” because of its bluish tint, resulting from the remains of ink on old manuscripts. Although in reality it was rather grayish due to the shortcomings of bleaching technology. But the Japanese did not strive for special whiteness, believing that the grayish color was more suitable for expressing their feelings towards the dead. Unlike modern European paper, which is made from wood pulp with fibers only 2–3 mm long, washi is made from fibers up to 10 mm long. These long fibers are intertwined quite tightly, providing the strength of the paper due to physical factors rather than chemical ones, as in European paper.

Not only the Japanese, but also the Arabs adopted the secret of making paper from the Chinese. They brought it to Spain, and from there the art of making paper spread throughout the world. Early European papers were made from recycled cotton and linen fabric, so the trade in rags and cotton linen began to boom. Interestingly, according to one assumption, the plague entered England from Europe in old rags. Soon, however, this source of raw material for paper became insufficient, and people began to use new, sometimes very exotic materials for paper production. There was a recorded case when... an Egyptian mummy was used as a raw material for wrapping paper! Less extravagant experimenters used straw, cabbage, animal skin, wool and even wasp nests! It turns out that there is glue in the saliva of wasps, so when a wasp chews off young shoots to build a nest, a sticky mass is formed in its mouth, similar in composition to paper: wood or straw fiber and glue.

In 1828 and 1861, interesting manuals on paper production were published - “Manuel de papeterie” by Louis Pitet, which included hundreds of samples of paper made from various substances, even leather and peat. Thus, any plant fiber that is flexible is suitable for making paper, but what distinguishes paper from other writing materials?

2.2. Making paper at home

METHOD I

You will need:
Large saucepan
Sheets of used paper
Mixer or food processor
Water
Soluble starch (two teaspoons)

What to do:
Tear the paper into small pieces (no larger than 2x2 cm) and place them in the pan. (If you are using a food processor, simply put the torn paper in it, add a little water and pulse until the paper breaks down into fibers. Then pour the resulting mixture into a pan of water and proceed to step 4)
Pour water into a saucepan (preferably warm). If you want to use starch, add it to the water now (two teaspoons).
Let the paper stand for 10 minutes, and then beat with a mixer until the paper fibers separate and the mass becomes soft.
Gradually lower a piece of gauze into the pan with one edge, holding it by the other edge. Immerse it completely in the mixture and then carefully remove it.
Let the water drain back into the pan.
Cover the gauze with blotting paper and turn it over, but be careful so that the resulting “cellulose” does not disintegrate.
Carefully remove the cheesecloth and cover the remaining “pulp” with a second sheet of blotting paper and roll.
Dry with an iron
Carefully remove the blotting paper. Do not touch the resulting sheet for 24 hours until completely dry.

METHOD II

You will need:
mortar and pestle
Liter glass beaker
Burner
Pot
A piece of gauze with small holes
Waste paper
Two sheets of blotting paper (or newspaper)

What to do:
Tear the paper into small pieces (no larger than 2x2 cm) and place them in a beaker.
Add a little water to cover the paper. Place the beaker over the burner and heat for 10 minutes.
Pour the resulting mixture into a mortar and crush well with a pestle.
Add this mixture to a pan of water.

METHOD III

Tools:
To work, you will need special frames with a mesh for filtering the liquid. They are wooden, sheet size A4 and A5. To work, it is enough to have two of each size. The mesh is fine-grained, similar to a sieve, and is used in construction. The mesh is attached to the frame with small nails. A top frame without a mesh is not required, but is desirable. It makes it possible to gain more mass and make it easier to level it on the grid.
We also use a blender and an iron to speed up the process (you can completely do without them).

Materials:
For work, you can take a wide variety of paper: documents that have been destroyed in special machines (shredders), old newspapers, egg trays, toilet paper. The authors used scraps from the margins of newspapers that did not have printing ink on them.
To make 2-3 sheets of paper you need approximately 3-4 liters of mass. The thinner the paper we want to get in the end, the more water we take at the beginning.
For painting, you can use any paints, starting with gouache.

Process:
1. The paper collected for work is torn into small pieces, filled with water and placed in a blender, where it is crushed until smooth. You can add dye. When the paper pulp is ready, it is applied to a frame with a mesh and covered with a frame without a mesh. It takes some time to let the water drain.
2. Remove the top frame (without the mesh).
3. Turn the frame over with the mesh facing up and use a sponge to remove all excess moisture. After this, carefully remove the frame with the mesh and leave it to dry for several hours.
4. Finally, iron the resulting paper through a thin rag or newspaper.

You can make absolutely amazing and unique crafts from the resulting paper. We made dummies from them for the technology room.

3. Conclusion

Thus, the goal set by the authors of the work at the very beginning was achieved: we mastered two methods of making paper at home described in the literature and proposed our own method.
In addition to the fact that this activity turned out to be exciting, it is certainly useful. We collected 38 kilograms of waste paper: the bulk of it was handed over to the school library for subsequent exchange at a recycling point for books. We used the trimmed margins of the collected newspapers to make paper. We can present the manufactured samples themselves. We presented crafts made from recycled materials to students in our school's after-school groups.
We hope that this small work has benefited nature.
After all, this was our main task.

The history of the appearance of paper dates back to the third millennium BC.

How it all began

The ancient Egyptians discovered a plant on the banks of rivers, papyrus, from which the writing material of the same name was made. Its trunks were cut into thin strips, folded in several layers lengthwise and crosswise, compressed under a heavy load and left to dry in the sun. Thus, flexible sheets were obtained, which were cut to specific sizes, polished and glued into scrolls. This was the first writing material that has survived to this day.

In the 2nd century, the production of papyrus was replaced by the production of paper, more similar to the one we use today. The inventors of the first paper technology are the Chinese. The raw material was the waste of silkworm cocoons, but due to their insufficient quantity, they switched to hemp nettle. The paper made from it was not of high quality: the sheets were different in thickness, rough and uneven, which was the reason to abandon this technology. To improve production, they took a different direction: mulberry bast. The quality of the paper made from it was several orders of magnitude higher, and the manufacturing secret itself was kept in the strictest confidence. But time passed, and this secret became clear, passed on to the Arabs and, from them, spread throughout the world.

At the beginning of the 13th century, the first paper mill appeared in Europe, and by the end of the 17th century, its production began in Russia.

New stage of development

Due to the fact that nothing in this world stands still, there was a shortage of raw materials for production, and more and more paper was required. This was the reason for the search for new technologies. For the first time, wood, or more precisely, wood pulp produced from it, began to be used to make paper. All types of trees, both soft and hard, are suitable for obtaining this raw material.

If you carefully examine a piece of paper through a microscope, you can tell with almost certainty what kind of wood the paper is made from for certain purposes.

For example, wrapping paper not only has a certain strength, but is also rough. It is made from soft wood species, such as pine, cedar, spruce. But here's an interesting fact. Paper made from Canadian spruce has all the qualities of strength, but the advantage is its elasticity.

Maple and oak are hard woods, but their paper is less durable. But, due to the fact that it has a smooth surface, it is used for typographic printing.

But if you mix pine and oak derivatives and carry out a series of chemical transformations, you can get a high-quality, durable and elastic sheet from which a book is made.

Despite the rapid development of computer technology and various electronic storage equipment, paper remains the most common and actively used material for storing information. It is difficult to overestimate its place in everyday use. It is needed in office work, printing, and everyday life.

Paper from antiquity

The history of paper production goes back to ancient times. Even the ancient Egyptians used a prototype of modern paper for writing, making their papyri from crushed reed fibers and pressed into thin sheets. The stems of this aquatic plant consist of thin and strong cellulose threads, which are released using special processing. The addition of adhesive substances made it possible to form a fairly thin layer from the resulting mass, which, after drying, acquired the desired characteristics. Ancient paper was quite thick, rough to the touch and did not have the whiteness that is inherent in modern writing materials.

Leather manuscripts

In Ancient Europe, parchment was used instead of paper. To make it, thin and elastic skins of small cattle were prepared. The skin removed from sheep and goats was processed using special technologies, after which it became soft and smooth. Layers of prepared material were cut to the size of the future book and sewn together in bookbinding workshops. Scattered documents were transported and stored in the form of scrolls. In this case, the skin did not wrinkle and did not have folds on which it could fray.

A tree to write on

Modern technologies for producing various types of paper involve the use of various types of wood. During the production process it is crushed to the desired size. The resulting mass is soaked in containers, where the chemical reagents necessary for the process of releasing cellulose fibers are added.

The prepared paper pulp, bleached or dyed, is formed into web using paper machines. It is passed through a series of rollers, which level and dry the paper stock. The result is a finished material that has the necessary characteristics:

• thickness;
• density;
• color;
• surface quality.

Different types of paper are intended for different uses - for office equipment you need thicker and stronger paper, for newspapers it is not of such quality. Toilet paper and napkin paper have their own requirements.

Alternative paper production

Using only wood to make paper products can quickly lead to the complete destruction of the planet's forests. Therefore, alternative technologies have been developed and used for a long time.

Cellulose, which is the basis of paper pulp, is obtained from the straw of agricultural crops. A huge amount of it accumulates in the fields every year. And most often it is simply left on the ground to serve as fertilizer.

Other crops can also become sources of fiber:

• hemp;
• cane.

In our country, as throughout the world, there is an active collection of waste paper, which is used as secondary raw material. Old books, newspapers, and packaging are shredded, bleached, washing off printing ink and ink, and the resulting mass is again made into paper. It is not as high quality, but is quite suitable for printing.

Paper from everything

In some countries, fabric processing has been developed to make writing products - rags are processed using similar technologies. Cotton and linen fiber, synthetic threads have the necessary properties, which allows them to be used for the production of durable, high-quality paper.

There are companies in the industry today that have completely abandoned the use of wood in paper production. They found completely unusual sources of raw materials for their products. Banana and palm leaves, all types of plant fibers, wool, even waste from herbivores are used.

Special types of paper can be made from mineral fibers such as asbestos, for example.

The use of such innovations helps to preserve the forests that exist today, preserving them for future generations of earthlings.

But how does a huge tree turn into a beautiful notebook, book or stack of white sheets? Let's figure this out together.

How paper is made

Paper is produced in paper mills. Logs are brought from the forest to the factory. The most commonly used are pine, spruce, birch, as well as eucalyptus, poplar, and chestnut.

On a special platform, the bark is stripped from the logs and crushed into chips. The fragments are then transported on a conveyor belt to a pulp mill, where they are boiled in a special solution. The result is cellulose, the main raw material for paper production.

Interesting! One tree produces 2857 notebooks of 12 pages. It takes 60 years to grow a mature tree. That is why it is important to use textbooks and notebooks carefully, because all of these are cut down trees.

The most economical way to obtain wood pulp is mechanical. The wood processing plant grinds the timber into crumbs and mixes it with water. This is how low-quality paper is made - for example, for newspapers.

But for the production of high-quality paper - for magazines, books and brochures - they use chemical method. Using sieves, the fragments are sorted by size. Next, the chopped wood with the addition of acid is boiled in special machines.

The cellulose then passes through filters and is washed to remove impurities. At this stage, waste paper can be added to the raw material, but it must first be cleared of ink.

The next step is adding adhesives and resins. The first ones repel moisture, the second ones prevent the spreading of ink, which is often water-based. It is thanks to these processes that what is written in your notebook does not smudge and is easy to read. Printing paper does not require such sizing, because printing inks are not water-based.

But that's not all. Then pigments and dyes are added to the paper raw material. For example, the white color of paper is obtained by adding kaolin.

After this, the paper pulp enters the paper machine onto a conveyor belt. Here, with the help of tiny porous holes and pressing with various rollers, moisture is removed from the paper and a continuous roll of tape is formed.

At the “wet pressing” stage, the paper is finally dried, dehydrated and compacted. The result is a smooth white tape wound onto a huge roll. The paper is ready! Can be sent to book factories. There, the paper web is cut to create books and notebooks.

You can learn all the intricacies of paper production from the video.

How are books made?

So, after the author writes the text and the editor of the publishing house approves it, the proofreading process. The work is checked for errors. Ideally, the proofreading team reads the text several times. After this, illustrations are selected for the book.

Then it begins layout. Using a special computer program, the layout designer selects the book format, margin size, types and sizes of fonts, and determines the location of illustrations and text.

The next stage is called color separation. Did you know that to print a fashion magazine cover you only need four colors: blue, pink, yellow and black? Therefore, now the designer must divide all illustrations into four components.

The most important stage is book printing. Using rollers on a printing machine, the ink is rolled out to a thin layer, fed onto a printing plate, which rotates and applies the image to a continuous roll of paper.

Interesting! Printing house workers can print several thousand sheets in one shift.

It is difficult to imagine any book without a cover. Therefore, the next stage is creating the “face” of the future book. If the cover is ready, it is placed on the book block and trimmed. If a hard cover is being made, the book is trimmed before the cover is glued on.

That's all - the book is ready to delight the eyes of admiring buyers, all that remains is to pack it. You can see with your own eyes how books are made in the next video.

What were books and paper made of in ancient times?

Once upon a time there were no books in the form in which you see them on store windows or in libraries today. And all because people did not know how to make them. Instead of paper, humanity used cave walls, stones, dishes, tree bark…

Years passed and people came up with the idea of ​​making records on wet clay. However, such books were too heavy, inconvenient and short-lived.

After some time, the heavy clay cloth was replaced calf or goat books skins are light and practical. Since the first such book was created in the ancient city of Pergamum, the “paper” made from animal skin was called parchment.

However, such material was too expensive, because to create one book, it was necessary to slaughter many calves. So people kept looking for cheaper and easier ways to create books. And they succeeded.

Along the rivers of Africa there grows a tall marsh plant - papyrus. People did not immediately realize its amazing properties. At first, the plant was used in the construction of houses. But one day a man was repairing his house. I cut the stem, took out the fibrous center and put it in the sun. Imagine the man’s surprise when he noticed that the fibers had turned into dry, narrow ribbons. And when he saw that papyrus also absorbs paint well, he realized: you can write on papyrus! This is how books made from papyrus appeared.

But who and when invented paper as we see it now? Researchers assure: the palm belongs to the Chinese. They came up with the idea of ​​producing paper from young bamboo shoots.

Interesting! ...And before that time, the Chinese wrote on silk or bamboo tablets. The Chinese jealously guarded the mystery of silk production. However, silk was very expensive, which means-inaccessible to the majority of the population, and bamboo- too heavy. Only 30 hieroglyphs were placed on one board. Information has been preserved: in order to transport some works, the Chinese needed a whole cart.

Chinese chronicles report that invented paper in 105 AD. e. Tsai Lun.

“Everyone highly appreciates the work of Tsai Lung: he invented paper, and his glory lives on to this day...”- says the chronicle.

The 4th century was a turning point in the history of paper making. After the technology of its production was improved, paper replaced bamboo planks forever. New experiments have proven that paper can be produced from cheap plant materials: tree bark, reed, bamboo. The Chinese were especially happy about the latter: bamboo is a dime a dozen in their country.

No matter how hard the Chinese tried to keep the secret of paper production, they failed. In 751, during the fight against the Arabs, several Chinese craftsmen were captured. From them Arabs They learned the secret of creating a mysterious product and for five centuries they profitably sold it to Europe.

Oddly enough, but Europeans were the last of the civilized peoples to learn how to make paper - somewhere in the 11th-12th centuries. The Spaniards were the first to borrow paper production technology, then the Italians, Germans, English... It is interesting that for a long time paper was made not only from soaked tree fibers, but also from rags and other rags.

The first industrial paper production machine was invented in France in 1798.

On the territoryand Ukrainian lands Paper production began in the 13th century in Galich. However, documented information about Ukrainian paper “factories” has been preserved since the 16th century. Researchers of the history of the Ukrainian paper industry have found materials about 200 “factories” that operated on the territory of Ukraine from the 16th to the beginning of the 20th century, which indicates the high cultural level of the then population.

Radomysl Castle in Radomysl, ZhitomirShchyna is the first paper mill in Central Ukraine, built in 1612.

Now paper surrounds us everywhere, conquering more and more new areas of application every year. That is why it is so important to remember that it is made from trees - forest resources that are catastrophically decreasing every year on the planet.

Treat books with care, use paper sparingly, recycle waste paper, plant trees - the least that everyone can do to preserve forests. And one inventive boy, in order to preserve forest plantations, even refused to write an essay. =)

Paper production is carried out at pulp and paper mills. These enterprises are located not far from bodies of water, since paper manufacturing technology involves the use of significant volumes of water. The main material used for paper production is various types of wood (mostly coniferous, because they consist of 40–50% cellulose) and waste paper. In special cases, cotton is used. Another type of raw material that has appeared relatively recently is synthetic fibers. Also, the basis for paper production can be rags, fibers of annual plants, wool, and asbestos.

For the production of paper, semi-finished products such as cellulose and wood pulp in different proportions are most often used.

Harvested wood undergoes special processing: chemical and mechanical.

Cellulose is obtained by boiling wood in a chemical solution. It is this that gives the material its whiteness and high strength. Cellulose in a semi-raw form can be immediately sent to the workshop for further processing, or it can be compressed, dried and sent in the form of gray sheets for sale to other enterprises. In its pure form, cellulose is used to produce high-quality, expensive grades of paper.

Mechanical processing and grinding of wood leads to the formation of wood pulp - particles with a diameter of two to three millimeters. This semi-finished product contains not only cellulose, but also lignin, a polymer that holds plant fibers together. It is because of this substance that printed products printed on newsprint turn yellowish-brown over time when exposed to light. Wood pulp in its pure form can only be used for the production of inexpensive grades of paper (newspaper, packaging).

Wood pulp after grinding wood

How paper is made

Production begins with the production of paper pulp, which is a mixture of water, cellulose and wood pulp (the ratio of cellulose and wood pulp determines the future characteristics of the product) with the addition of various substances for sizing, coloring, improving the properties of the material (glue, resin, starch, chalk , kaolin and others). The ratio of water to fiber is such that the paper pulp is a 2.5–3% suspension.

The pre-cleaned paper pulp enters the paper-making machine - a complex unit of enormous size (length - over 100 m, width - 15-18 m). In one minute, the semi-finished product manages to pass through all parts of the paper machine;NOTE_MOBILE_740#

Paper making machine

• Mesh part. Under pressure, this composition is continuously fed to the moving wire mesh of the paper machine. The papermaking technology is such that the fibers are arranged and interwoven along the movement of the mesh, creating a machine direction that will later play an important role in the use of the finished product. As the mesh moves, the water gradually leaves and the paper web is formed.
• Press part. During the pressing process, the canvas passes between several pairs of press rollers, compacting and releasing most of the moisture.
• Drying part. In it, the base paper is dried by heated steam cylinders. But even after this, up to 8% moisture remains in the canvas.
• Calenders. The canvas, pre-cooled by cold drums, undergoes calendering - it is passed between heavy polished rollers - calenders to give it greater smoothness and strength. Calendered paper is wound into a roll and cut into smaller rolls or unrolled and cut into sheets.